The invention generally relates to disk drives in computer systems and, more particularly, the invention relates to reducing vibration produced by a rotating disk drive in a computer system.
Disk drives commonly are mounted within a rigid disk cage that is a part of a computer system. To increase data storage capacity, the disk cage often includes several bays for receiving more than one disk drive. For example, well known RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disk) arrays have a plurality of removable disk drives that each are removably coupled within specific bays of a single disk cage. Each disk drive in a RAID array generally includes an interface that couples with a corresponding interface to a main bus on the computer system. The disk drives in many well known RAID arrays are considered to be xe2x80x9chot swappablexe2x80x9d since they may be removed from and reinserted into the cage at any time.
As the processing speed of computer systems increase, there is a growing need to more rapidly access data on RAID arrays. To that end, disk drives are being developed to rotate at ever higher speeds (e.g., 10,000 revolutions per minute). Although beneficial for rapidly retrieving data, operating the disk drives at such high speeds often produces undesired vibrations that can cause the vibrating disk drive (as well as other disk drives in the RAID array) to malfunction.
This vibration is multiplied when each disk drive in a RAID array is vibrating. In fact, the disk drives can vibrate at a resonant frequency that could cause a catastrophic data failure of the entire RAID array.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a disk cage for use with a computer system includes an interior wall that forms a disk drive chamber, and a spring for reducing the vibration of any disk drives that may be inserted within the disk chamber. The spring is coupled with the interior wall and extends into the disk drive chamber to form a receiving chamber for receiving the disk drive.
In preferred embodiments, the drive chamber is substantially rectangular. The spring may be any well known type of spring, such as a leaf spring.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a disk system includes a disk cage having a spring and an interior wall that forms a disk drive chamber. The disk system also includes a disk drive removably coupled within the disk drive chamber. The spring in the disk cage preferably is coupled with the interior wall and extends into the disk drive chamber to form a receiving chamber. The spring contacts the disk drive to dampen disk drive vibration.
In some embodiments, the spring is permanently secured to the interior wall. In other embodiments, the disk cage includes a plurality of additional springs coupled with the interior wall. The disk system further includes a plurality of disk drives removably coupled within the receiving chamber. Each disk drive contacts one spring to dampen disk drive vibration.